Study to shed light on climate change marine impact

A Western Australian-led study will be used to investigate exactly how extreme changes in the ocean's temperature affect fish, algae and other marine life.

Last year, parts of the Indian Ocean around WA reached temperatures not seen for more than a century, after a heatwave.

Researchers compared the effect on marine life at Hamelin and Jurien bays with data from the past seven years.

The University of WA's Dr Timothy Langlois says it is a world first.

"There have been similar events around the world where heatwaves have occurred but this is the first one where we've got this great monitoring data beforehand, so you can actually say with certainty that this heatwave caused these changes in the system," he said.

"There aren't many place where you can do that."

Dr Langlois says the results are invaluable.

"Well we know ... things are going to change in the future with projections of global warming, so what this study really does is allows us to work out how marine systems are likely to change and that allows us to manage things better in the future," he said.